TB can be a
demographic disaster for Sabah with low local population
There was a recent headline in front page
of a local paper (BP) as ”TB vaccination for all” (March 1, 2019) and then a Ministry
Of Health declared that only children would be vaccinated (5 March, 2019).
The question begging an answer is that
why only in 2019 such drastic action be initiated when it was known back in
2000 as items such as “Serious Rise in Sabah TB (DE 1 April, 2000) and “Sabah
has the highest TB cases” (DE 4 July, 2000) were simply ignored by the
Government then?
Are we now in a pandemic scenario? I hope
the Government should take immediate measure to curb the health menace. Vaccination
for adult may not fully address this sort of health crisis or rather the
Government set up facilities to detect such cases for curing possibility made
easy.
Tuberculosis is caused by bacteria that
spread from person to person through microscopic droplets released into the
air. This can happen when someone with the untreated, active form of
tuberculosis coughs, speaks, sneezes, spits, laughs or sings. Although
tuberculosis is contagious, it's not easy to catch.
In some countries, BCG injections are
given to children to vaccinate them against tuberculosis. It is not recommended
for general use in the U.S. because it is not effective in adults, and it can
adversely influence the results of skin testing diagnoses.
The most important thing to do is to
finish entire courses of medication when they are prescribed. MDR-TB bacteria
are far deadlier than regular TB bacteria. Some cases of MDR-TB require extensive
courses of chemotherapy, which can be expensive and cause severe adverse drug reactions in
patients.
People with compromised immune systems are most at risk of
developing active tuberculosis. For instance, HIV suppresses the immune system,
making it harder for the body to control TB bacteria. People who are infected
with both HIV and TB are around 20-30 percent more likely to develop active TB than those who do
not have HIV.
Tobacco use has also been found to increase the risk of
developing active TB. About 8 percent of TB cases worldwide are related to smoking.
Tuberculosis is
an infectious disease that usually affects the lungs. Compared with other
diseases caused by a single infectious agent, tuberculosis is the second
biggest killer, globally.
I would like to
share what I personally about two cases – one in my childhood days when an
uncle was so cleanliness conscious that he would clean even banana and other
fruits skin with soap but it was later reported he died of TB at a young age.
For myself, I
think I had BCG as a school boy in Labuan born after the 2nd World
War and that could have saved me the attack of TB in the late 1970s when I was
in London. I came back to Kota Kinabalu
in 1980 and a few years later I went back to London looking up for a close
colleague who was dead from an advance stage of TB. I was told to have
mandatory full check up in the local hospital as I used to share his home in
various visits then.
Strangely when I
came to the said hospital the nurse came to me with big eyes. Then I had the
X-ray and to come back a few days for the result and unfortunately the X-ray
film was black also a shock for the nurse. So I had to have a repeat of X-ray
within days. The second X-ray came out fine and no treatment was prescribed for
me. So I was cleared of TB. Who can
explain how I escaped the death call of TB sort of miracle?
Would we all now
address the “curse” and scourge of TB brought about by the massive presence of PTI
in Sabah without fail for the consequence of belated action is unthinkable when
TB is the second highest killer globally?
Joshua Y C Kong
6/3/2019
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